Business organizations retain electronic documents, records and other data in storage for extended periods of time for a number of reasons including easy access, internal policy, and regulation compliance, among other various reasons. For instance, organizations may be required to retain electronic records of documents for electronic discovery purposes. Several requirements dictate retention of electronic records including business law, government regulations, bank compliance, tax purposes among others.
Electronic discovery is an increasingly utilized form of information gathering for a variety of purposes. The use of electronic discovery mechanisms in civil litigation, as well as tax, government investigation, and criminal proceedings is becoming essential.
Electronic discovery, also referred to as e-discovery or EDiscovery, concerns deals with information in electronic form. In this context, electronic form is the representation of information as binary numbers. Electronic information is different from paper information because of its intangible form, volume, transience, and persistence. Also, electronic information is usually accompanied by metadata, which is rarely present in paper information. Electronic discovery poses new challenges and opportunities for attorneys, their clients, technical advisors, and the courts, as electronic information is collected, reviewed, and produced. Electronic discovery is the subject of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which are effective Dec. 1, 2006. In particular Rules 16 and 26 are of interest to electronic discovery.
Examples of the types of data included in e-discovery include e-mail, instant messaging chats, Microsoft Office files, accounting databases, CAD/CAM files, Web sites, and any other electronically-stored information which could be relevant evidence in a law suit. Also included in e-discovery is raw data which forensic investigators can review for hidden evidence. The original file format is known as the native format. Litigators may review material from e-discovery in one of several formats: printed paper, native file, or as TIFF images.
Errors in data disposition may result in dire consequences. For instance, in cases where data wasn't disposed of, too much data has been disposed of, or wrong data has been disposed of, an organization may incur unwanted legal and business consequences. Therefore, there is a need to carefully manage data disposition systems.
Therefore, there is a need to develop an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure for managing the disposition of data while taking into account whether data has been held from disposition.